The National Perinatal Data Collection comprises data items as specified inthe Perinatal National Minimum Data Set plus additional items collected by the states and territories. The purpose of the Perinatal NMDS is to collect information at birth for monitoring pregnancy, childbirth and the neonatal period for both the mother and baby(s). The Perinatal NMDS is a specification for data collected on all births in Australia in hospitals, birth centres and the community. It includes information for all live births and stillbirths of at least 400 grams birthweight or at least 20 weeks gestation. It includes data items relating to the mother, including demographic characteristics and factors relating to the pregnancy, labour and birth; and data items relating to the baby, including birth status, sex, gestational age at birth, birthweight and neonatal morbidity and fetal deaths. There is currently no data element in the Perinatal National Minimum Data Set for smoking during pregnancy, however some information is obtained as part of the NPDC. A program for national data development was completed in 2009 to add nationally agreed data items on smoking during pregnancy to the Perinatal NMDS from 2010. For 2007, data on smoking during pregnancy is available from seven jurisdictions (New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). Data are not available for Victoria but will be available for the 2009 pregnancy cohort. Although the NPDC provides all relevant data elements of interest for this indicator, definitions used for smoking during pregnancy differ among the jurisdictions. Seven of the states and territories currently collect at least one smoking question as part of their routine perinatal data collections. Data for the Northern Territory and South Australia relate to smoking status at the first antenatal visit. For South Australia, smoked includes women who quit before the first antenatal visit. This may result in higher rates of smoking being reported for these jurisdictions because often the first antenatal visit will precede pregnancy-related harm minimisation interventions designed to stop smoking during pregnancy. Given the different timing of data collection on smoking during pregnancy in the seven jurisdictions, comparisons between states and territories should beinterpreted with caution. While each jurisdiction has a unique perinatal form for collecting data on which the format of the Indigenous status question and recording categories varies slightly, all systems include the NMDS item on Indigenous status of mother. No formal national assessment has been undertaken to determine completeness of the coverage of Indigenous mothers in the NPDC or to determine variability between states and territories. However, the proportion of Indigenous mothers for the period 1997–2006 has been consistent, at 3.2–3.7 per cent of women who gave birth. Mothers for whom Indigenous status was not stated (0.1 per cent missing) have been excluded from analyses for this indicator. Data provided for this indicator on women who smoked during pregnancy includes women who quit during pregnancy. |